Thursday, January 10, 2008

7 candidates submit more than 2,000 signatures compared to 1 in 2004. Thirteen presidential candidates will be on Rhode Island’s March 4 primary ballot, Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis announced today.Today was the deadline for the secretary of state’s office to certify that presidential hopefuls had collected the signatures of at least 1,000 eligible Rhode Island voters that they needed in order to qualify for the primary.“One sign that Rhode Islanders are taking this primary very seriously is the number of signatures they submitted. In 2004, only President Bush collected more than 2,000. This year, seven candidates exceeded that mark,” said Mollis. “We certified more than 25,000 signatures in all.”Among the Democrats, Hillary Clinton led the way with 2,902 certified signatures. John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich, and Barack Obama will join Clinton on the Democratic ballot.Republican Ron Paul led all candidates with 3,109 certified signatures. Hugh Cort, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, Duncan Hunter, Alan Keyes, John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Fred Thompson will join Paul on the Republican ballot.Hunter and Keyes surged past the 1,000-certified-signature threshold today, becoming the last two candidates to qualify to run in Rhode Island’s presidential primary. Twenty candidates had filed Declarations of Candidacy with the secretary of state. Democrats Joe Biden, Chris Dodd and Republican Tom Tancredo officially withdrew from the race. Others, such as Democrat Bill Richardson, failed to collect enough certified signatures to make the ballot even as he announced today that his campaign was ending.The next milestone in the state’s Presidential Primary calendar is Feb. 1, when Mollis will hold a public lottery at the State House to determine the order in which the candidates will appear on the Democratic and Republican ballots. Secretary of State Mollis is committed to making it easier for Rhode Islanders to vote, helping businesses grow and making government more open and accessible.To see the final signature tallies of every candidate, click here . For a listing of Party Delegates click here.

"If government is not good perhaps it is because the "good" refuse to participate and so we get the government that we deserve."-Mark Twain "To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." -Teddy Roosevelt